A Very Private Tutor: One day becoming a judge or politician seems
impossible to many children, particularly in the state sector, due to a lack
of career guidance.

One of the ways that public schools have the edge over state schools is when it comes to careers. The state should listen – there is a reason why certain jobs are stuffed with the products of privilege.

This week I saw a pupil I hadn’t taught for a few years. When last I saw her, she was a shy, timid thing, about to start her new school. She was bright, friendly and I enjoyed tutoring her very much; then, as often happens, off she went into the world. But she needed a bit of help this week with her GCSEs. And when she answered the door, I was happily surprised – here was a confident, motivated young woman who could talk on her own terms to any adult. We ended our session with a career talk – she was thinking about various options, and wanted to start doing some work experience this summer, before her A level year began.

My state school pupils, on the other hand, look confused when I ask them about their careers. They scratch their heads – do you have to get all As to become a barrister? Do you have to get a degree to become a journalist? They look at universities like UCL and Bristol with a kind of awe – how could they ever get the grades to get into those places? The professions seem like distant dreams to them, because nobody ever sits them down and says – you do this, that and the other. The doors into that world are shut.

It is quite common for tutors to help their pupils with gaining work experience in any field they might also be operating in (and conversely for the parents of pupils to give a leg up to tutors.) This is the sort of thing that could easily be replicated in a state school, through schemes into which employers could opt, or simply by giving proper career days. I remember at school doing some useless career test which confidently proclaimed that I could be either a prison warder or an architect: if that is the sort of thing that’s still on offer, it’s no wonder the world seems like a bewildering place.

So I help my state school pupils – try to demystify things for them; show them that you can go to university, do a subject you love, and then do a conversion course into pretty much anything (a lot of them are convinced that you have to do a certain degree in a certain subject to get anywhere). I tell them to ask around – parents, teachers, family friends – for a few days shadowing experience, whatever the job; to read the papers, get an understanding of the fields they might be interested in; to volunteer.

And I hope that being a judge, a politician or even a solicitor won’t seem like such a terrifying, distant prospect to these intelligent, able children. The doors they need to go through are there – they just seem too far away. Let’s all help to open them.

A Very Private Tutor writes an anonymous column every Friday for Telegraph Education on life as a private tutor to London's super-rich. Read more by this author: